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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiViT who wrote (33372)	5/22/1998 3:28:00 PM
From: Don Dorsey	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

How many single chip codecs are on the market? Even if decoders become commoditized, codecs will involve proprietary technology for many years.

To: DiViT who wrote (33372)	5/23/1998 9:07:00 AM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

VLSI front end chip for settops................................... techweb.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Multimedia ICs -- Front-end devices address demodulation, error correction -- VLSI rolls set-top chip line By Junko Yoshida London - VLSI Technology Inc. unveiled a family of front-end chips for digital cable, satellite and terrestrial set-top boxes at the Cable & Satellite Conference here last week. The line includes a single-chip demodulator for European terrestrial digital TV broadcasting; an integrated cable set-top front-end chip that handles 64- and 256-QAM modulated signals; and a return-channel modem chip for two-way cable set-tops that is compatible with both the Davic 1.1 and Multimedia Cable Network Systems (MCNS) standards. David Tahmassebi, director of marketing at the San Jose, Calif., chip maker, called the introductions "a significant extension" to VLSI Technology's set-top IC product line, the ViSTA family. The move positions VLSI as a leading supplier of key components for digital set-tops both in Europe and the United States, he said. VLSI's single-chip solution for terrestrial digital TV, designated VES9600, is designed to demodulate the coded orthogonal frequency-division modulation signals specified in Europe's DVB-T standard. Its launch propels VLSI into a race with other leading chip vendors working on DVB-T front-end solutions-such as Motorola, SGS-Thomson and LSI Logic-timed for the terrestrial DTV rollout in Europe, scheduled for this fall.

To: DiViT who wrote (33372)	5/23/1998 9:33:00 AM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Creative is going to offer a daughter card. But when???????????????? techweb.com Direct Article Link \| New Search \| Search the Web June 01, 1998, TechWeb News -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Video Cards Break Traditional Bounds By James E. Powell Until recently, graphics accelerators were relied on mainly to provide high-quality output at greater resolutions and color depths. Now, they must handle expanded video capability. Consequently, three of the four cards reviewed here break conventional barriers and delve further into video, either as an input source or for output. All the cards reviewed here support DirectX 5.0, which is important for game players but less so for business users. All have 8MB of SGRAM, except the Canopus Total3D, which has only 4MB. Ironically, the Total3D yielded some of the best subjective results. We measured performance using new Word and Excel macros for Office 97, a 3D macro running in Caligari's trueSpace3, and the strenuous Final Reality benchmark (Final Reality Marks) that tests 2D and 3D performance. ATI All-in-Wonder Pro The All-in-Wonder Pro from ATI Technologies packs 2D and 3D performance, a TV tuner (with lots of supporting software), and video in and out. Thanks to the ATI RAGE PRO chip, the board sports one big plus: It's compatible with Windows 98's upcoming Broadcast PC specification, which will make desktop video even more seamless. That compatibility gives the card longevity. The card's performance in 3D testing was very good and all 3D renderings were correct, making the ATI a winning choice for gamers. Sadly, its application performance in several tests yielded last-place finishes. The All-in-Wonder Pro stumbled badly in 1280x1024x16-bit mode testing Excel, taking 922 seconds. Similarly, it finished last in our Word test, but not by as wide a margin. With the card's ATI Video Player, you can watch either broadcast or cable TV channels. The best feature of the Video Player is TV Magazine, which captures both closed-captioned text and thumbnail images into a transcript-like RTF file. You can set "hot words" that trigger a new transcription when your text matches what's in the closed captioning. If a financial analyst talks about your favorite mutual fund during lunch, you can read his or her comments when you get back to your desk. For couch potatoes, the Visual Channel Selection (VCS) feature browses through selected channels and shows you a thumbnail of what's on. You just double-click on the thumbnail to switch to that channel. The documentation is usually clear, but sometimes annoyingly incomplete. For example, it tells you how to set up the TV Magazine but neglects to tell you to which file the data is being captured. The package is loaded with an array of software, including MGI's VideoWave for simple video editing and Macromedia's Director version 5.0. Canopus Total3D 128V The application performance results of the Canopus Total3D 128V (see chart) are particularly impressive, considering the card we tested is a 4MB card. Its mixed test results (see chart) are the only reason it didn't make our WinList. Two- and three-dimensional renderings were accurate, text was crisp, and the performance numbers were good, considering the price. If you don't need the TV tuner features of the All-in-Wonder Pro, the Total3D 128V is the way to go. Provisions for video in and out and an audio cable for connecting your sound card to your TV or VCR make installation simple. The drivers let you adjust the TV's screen position, brightness and contrast, and enable a "flicker-free" mode to make text more readable. Canopus includes two applications for using video input. Total Cinema EX provides motion capture and playback using a remote-control-like screen. V-Shot uses a 35mm camera interface for still-image capture. Both are effective and easy to use. While setup documentation was clear, it lacked detail, so you'll have to experiment with Total Cinema EX to understand how it works. Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Exxtreme Professional Creative Labs' Graphics Blaster Exxtreme uses the Permedia 2 processor from 3Dlabs. We tested the Professional Edition, with 8MB of 100MHz SGRAM. (A 4MB version is available for $70 less.) We found business application performance good, but rendering quality, as revealed by our Final Reality and Caligari trueSpace tests, was the worst in this roundup. The card has enhanced video module interface connectors for upgrading to future technology, but unlike the other three cards in this group, it has no video input or output ports. Creative says you'll be able to buy a daughter card that uses the same proprietary DVD playback technology found in its DVD Encore kit (which is on our WinList). We've always admired Creative Labs for its well-designed, value-priced products, and the Exxtreme continues in that tradition.